British Columbia’s transportation minister, Rob Fleming, wrote a letter to his federal counterpart, Pablo Rodriguez, to address safety gaps that allow some trucking companies to operate unsafely across Canada without facing consequences. This plea was made following a series of incidents in which commercial trucks collided with highway overpasses.
In one example, a company involved in an overpass crash on Highway 99 last month had its B.C. fleet taken off the road. However, because it was part of a group with a fleet in Alberta, those trucks were still allowed to operate in B.C. Fleming emphasized in his letter that suspension or cancellation of a carrier’s safety certificate in one jurisdiction does not impact their operations in another.
Furthermore, Fleming highlighted that the current decentralized safety certificate model holds no one authority responsible for overseeing a carrier’s entire operations in the case of multiple jurisdiction certificates. He called for a solution to this issue and urged for it to be discussed at the next meeting of transport ministers.
Commenting on this matter, Fleming expressed concern that a small minority of companies are creating significant road safety issues and causing extensive infrastructure damage. One such instance occurred in December when a load of construction girders carried by Langley, B.C., based Chohan Freight Forwarders collided with an overpass in Delta. Although the company’s B.C. fleet of 65 trucks was taken out of service, social media posts revealed trucks branded “Chohan Group” and “Edmonton” operating in B.C. The B.C. Ministry of Transportation clarified that Chohan operated in Alberta as a distinct entity.
Fleming stressed that the “current decentralized safety certificate model” leaves an operator suspended in one jurisdiction “free to continue their operations with no change to their safety practices by using vehicles plated in another jurisdiction.”